Today theSpaceUK announces its 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Season with over 400 shows and the biggest new-writing programme at the Fringe. There’s household names to hunt down an autograph from, award-winners with their eyes on another prize, up-and-coming companies back to make their mark, and plenty of debut performances.
Now in its 25th year, theSpaceUK has added two new theatres at its Surgeon’s Hall Hub (named after the biologists Fleming and Haldane) and you can now gaze at the stars with a cocktail in hand whatever the weather as the Surgeon’s Hall Courtyard has a spectacular new see-through roof.
Back with a brand-new show, award-winning writer Glenn Chandler (Taggart, Kids Play) is back with The Good Scout, the true story of 1930s British Boy scouts playing host to the cycling parties of Hitler Youth.
Can lightning strike twice? The company behind SIX is back with Rust, a moving and life-affirming original new musical about addiction & mental health services. Telling the tale of Winifred Baxter – the first Englishwoman to enter an air race, Clouds is a new play from Time & Again Theatre aiming to make Women in STEM a talking point. Last year their debut show, Greyhounds was a sleeper hit so they’re hoping to build on its success.
Looking for a bit more weight to your drama? 10:31, MCR is a somber and poignant piece set at the Manchester Arena on 22 May, 2017 10:31pm, about the devasting results of the attack and the need to make sense of it all. A lesson that will change your life – following on from his smash-hit Canoe in 2018, Matthew Roberts is back with Teach. A compelling and timely new piece of comic/tragic physical theatre from Nth Degree Productions, The Words are There delves into the lesser known side of domestic abuse.
Despite only being recently written, Christopher Tajah (a fishmonger by day) has already picked up an Offie nomination for his superb performance in Dream of a King – set the night of Martin Luther King’s shooting in a Tennessee motel room. We’re back in time again with the 1980’s set show, Section 28: The Legacy of a Homophobic Law about the struggles of sexuality at the time of the Local Governments Act.
Need a bit of light-relief? There’s the wild new comedy, Noir Hamlet, which has already picked up the Boston Globe Critic’s Pick earlier this year and updates Hamlet to a wise-cracking 1940s detective up to his neck in a comedic case with more twists that a gallows tie. From peeing in public to dealing with bulimia, there’s more comedy-theater in Bodily Functions and Where to Find Them. Hopefully not based on a true story, a delusional woman deals with her adventures pursuing Sue Perkins with In PurSUEt. box. is a new funny solo performance about one man’s struggle to traverse the toll road of middle age… all using just a single cardboard box.
Prepare for a nerdgasm with plenty of Sci-Fi themed shows this year. Conscious explores a world where the rich replace the working class with humanoid AIs in an all too possible future. Chaika: First Woman in Space is the true story of Valentina Tereshkova, a young textile worker plucked from obscurity to lead the Soviet Union’s race to the stars. 24 candidates remain for the Mars Mission Programme in the reality TV show in If I Die on Mars. On the verge of a natural disaster, an artificial intelligence named Sally joins the team in futuristic Auto-Nation.
Inspired by China’s social credit system, Level Up explores a near-future utopia where real love is impossible to measure. The first man in space is back on Earth and facing new temptations. Fame, fortune, alcohol, nostalgic space anthems and sex – in a brand-new musical, Space Junk: A Soviet Musical from Slipshod Theatre.
There’s outrageous comedy from Out Cast Theatre and writer Steven Dawson with two shows: Adventures of Butt Boy and Tigger and Bitch, Antigone. Fresh from a national tour and sell-out shows in 2016 & 2017, award winning comedian Tom Taylor’s one-man murder mystery, A Charlie Montague Mystery: The Games’ a Foot, Try the Fish returns for a short-run.
Two young drama school students play a surrealist game of poetry and acrobatics exploring the passionate world of the Spanish poet Federico GarcÃa Lorca in Lorca: A Theatre Beneath the Sand from Spanish company Enebro Teatro. In a screwball comedy, inspired by actual events, The Penguin Tango is about a community of penguins is hilariously turned upside down by sex, stereotypes and soggy sardines.
Charles Pamment, Director of theSpaceUK, said ‘It’s our 25th year of presenting work at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and at a time when the fringe is undergoing much change we are very proud that we continue to offer the most diverse programme in Edinburgh as well as the largest platform for new and original work with over 400 shows across our venues this August. Above all we are very excited to be able to offer reviewers and the wider media a selection of work that crosses all genres with particular focus on the social and topical issues that our programme has become known for. We urge you to step away from the herd and explore by the far the most diverse and original programme at the modern festival.’
